What’s the December 2022 Helpful Content Google Algorithm Update About?

Say Goodbye to Unhelpful Content!

Google recently released a Helpful Content System Algorithm Update across all languages to help protect people from low-quality or spammy content and to improve the effectiveness of its current spam detection system.

The announcement was made via the Google Search Central Twitter account and affects all content globally. Once a Helpful Content Update is announced, it takes about two weeks to fully roll out.

Here’s what to expect from the December 2022 helpful content Google algorithm update:

What Is “Helpful Content”?

Google published a document titled “More content by people, for people in Search” in August 2022. Two crucial topics were discussed in the document’s overview of what the helpful content upgrade entailed for publishers:

More Helpful Product Reviews from Experts

Improved visibility for expertly written product evaluations was one of the document’s main goals.

This consisted of:

• Easier for people to find original and valuable insights
• Access to better content from experts
• Easier access to high-quality information through search engines

This means that writers who produce product reviews that contain fresh opinions, thoughts, and data from real-world testing should have higher ranks than those who simply repeat a manufacturer’s spec sheet. It’s all about preventing unhelpful content from getting to readers.

Better Ranking of Original, Quality Content

Google is facilitating people’s access to unique, top-notch content. Therefore, publishers who are putting out good, original content ought to experience growth.

Benefits from this include, among others:

• Better results for online shopping, education, tech, and entertainment
• Improved rankings for high-quality content
• Improved visibility for original, authentic information
• Google presents better results instead of just SEO-jammed content

This also implies that the manner that content is ranked on specialized websites should improve. If your legal firm is offering distinctive, worthwhile insights, you should do better in search engine results than a general category website with novice marketers penning the same articles.

Is August’s Helpful Content Update Still Applicable?

Do you want to rank on this search engine? First, Content Update was introduced in August to ensure the content that ranks is worthy. With the most recent algorithm update, Google is currently making changes to the August ranking strategy.

Helpful Content is now a verified ranking element in Google’s algorithm. This update modified August’s ranking system and aims to enhance Google’s comprehension of useful content.

They change frequently, just like Google’s other ranking algorithms. The helpful rating system has seen one modification thus far, but we anticipate more to come. Google will keep making adjustments to how they evaluate, rank, and honor useful content written for human consumption.

The October Google Helpful Content Update

A Combat Against Low-quality Content

This Google update was targeted toward fighting spam on search engines.

Google has a precise definition of what constitutes spam, which includes deceiving users into disclosing personal information or allowing malware to be installed on their systems. Spam improvements make it easier to spot phishing scams and other fraudulent websites that attempt to rank in search results by pretending to be pertinent pages.

Although some people could classify thin web pages as spam, Google does not. The helpful content algorithm used by Google is more likely to punish thin content. Even websites that adhere to Google’s Search Essentials might be compromised by hackers. A website can unwittingly be serving spam to users if it is not sufficiently safeguarded.

Does the December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update Affect Your Ranking?

We can anticipate some significant changes in ranks given that Google has announced this link spam update.

Each year, Google releases tens of thousands of little tweaks to its ranking algorithm. They often decide to announce five to 10 of those throughout this time, including both major updates and more minor ones like this one.

Google prepares webmasters and publishers for changes to website ranks and overall search engine visibility any time it takes the time to reveal updates to its ranking methodology.

If the Last Google Helpful content update Didn’t Affect Me, will This One?

The initial upgrade to helpful content, which went live a little over two months ago, caused some confusion in the SEO community. Many SEO website owners were anticipating an Armageddon-style shift in ranks and a total overhaul of SERP results in the weeks before the upgrade.

However, what was observed was a very brief sequence of vibrations that substantially preserved the SERP findings. Although some egregious violators who used hundreds or millions of doorway pages to an affiliate site were penalized, the impacts were often extremely minor.

At this point, the ranks have changed more than they did after the last algorithm upgrade that favored helpful content.

As things keep rolling out, it is tough to predict how much will change over the next two weeks; however, we advise evaluating your site’s performance and monitoring changes in organic traffic and rankings to determine how your website is impacted.

What’s Next?

Once a helpful content system is announced, it takes up to two weeks to see the impacts. Since Google’s Helpful Content Update was released on the 5th of December 2022, you should start seeing the effects.

To determine how your website has been impacted, site owners should benchmark their rankings on search engines against the previous year’s position.

Make sure you review the Google search ranking updates page to ensure you understand how to publish more authentic and high-quality content written for your audience.

Circle of Legal Trust is here to ensure that reliable attorneys are able to appear on the search results page. This 2022 Helpful Content Update will help you take your legal firm to the next level.